Tunisia began deploying armed police to protect foreign tourists in hotels and seaside resorts on Wednesday after last week’s deadly extremist attack on a beach resort, the interior ministry said.

Tunisia began deploying armed police to protect foreign tourists in hotels and seaside resorts on Wednesday after last week's deadly extremist attack on a beach resort, the interior ministry said.

"This morning, we started to deploy and armed police will be in hotels within the hour," spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP.

Security officials "are busy deploying at Hammamet," a seaside resort in the south of Tunis, he added.

Tunisia promised a raft of new security measures after last Friday's rampage in the resort of Port El Kantaoui, which killed 38 people, most of them British tourists.

It said it would deploy 1,000 armed officers from Wednesday to reinforce the tourism police, who would also carry guns for the first time.

President Beji Caid Essebsi said Tuesday that security had been boosted in other areas for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said Wednesday it had identified all 38 victims, with British tourists accounting for the lion's share of the dead.

"All the bodies have been identified. Among them are 30 Britons," said the ministry's director of emergency services, Naoufal Somrani.